Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Portugal, Jose Alberto

Keywords

Translation, Latin American Literature

Area of Concentration

Spanish Language and Literature

Abstract

This thesis consists primarily of my translation of Juan Carlos Onetti's short novel La muerte y la ni�a from Spanish into English. The original text presents a host of challenges to the reader, challenges which I attempt to reproduce, rather than resolve, in my translation. I attempt to recreate the complicated syntax, unusual word choice, and linguistic ambiguity that characterize Onetti's style and this novella in particular. In my introductory essay I analyze the function of certain narrative mechanisms including the use of adjectives, repetition, and apparent "recklessness" in the creation of Santa Mar�a, the fictional world at the center of Onetti's fiction. I argue that these stylistic elements serve to make apparent the presence of a distinct creator behind Santa Mar�a, revealing the city and its saga as a chronicle of its own creation. Parting from this analysis, my primary concern as a translator was to preserve these important stylistic elements in the translation, at times at the cost of producing an easily readable text.

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